"No, I think not. I have my fans and reputation to think of."

She's always been shady.

At least she didn't lock a gay man in the prison of heterosexual "marriage" for the rest of his life like the Widow Edwards.

ON-J said something similar when they offered Matt Lattanzi a gay role. She said "it wouldn't be good for his image." A reporter quipped, "what image?"

OP - are you not able to conceive of the notion of historical context? Bill and Hillary Clinton's support of the Defense of Marriage Act had far greater implications for gays than an actress turning down a role so as to protect the image created for her fans in the 1960's. Silly.

She's always been a bit prissy that way , she also turned down Nurse Ratched and has been very assiduous in cultivating a cosy, family friendly image. Silly really as her most notable movie role is the villainous Mrs Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate. Maybe she regrets it as she has also been quoted as wishing she'd been young enough to play Barbara Covet in Notes On a Scandal.

Who wants to be perceived as a lesbian??

She ultimately did play one in Bway's DEUCE. The sex scene with Marian Seldes was intense.

First Streep, now Angela. Is this part of some payback for the attacks on men in the molesting scandals?

[quote] Bette Davis, on the other hand, really wanted to play that role

Bullshit. There's no way Davis would want to play that role. Sister George wasn't just a lesbian, she was a sadist, a drunk, a perv (the car ride with the nun) and overall creepy. In those days, no one like Bette Davis would ever play that role. Beryl Reid was refused service in shops due to the role.

[R8] Wrong. Bette did want the role - look it up.

Angie was too busy playing Lionel Barrymore's mother that year so it's not like she had time for that lesbian film anyway.

Bette didn't mind her gay boy fans, but did not like lesbians. Why did she want to play one?

If you don't look past the gloss, Angela Lansbury is fine. But she's got a LOT of gloss.

No one lasts in show biz for over 70 years without being one tough cookie. She's not the doddy old lady she'd have you think.

Years later, Angela is still bitter over not being cast as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate". "I tried to have Bitch Bancroft killed so I could play a slutty housewife who cheats on her husband constantly culminating in fucking my daughter's fiance. I don't give a damn about my goody-two shoes image. I wanted that role.", Angela once told me during lunch at La Cirque.

I remember another quote of hers about lesbians. Something similar to "Do you KNOW what they do?!". Shame.

So she preferred me to Susannah York. Big whoop. Consider that she and Glynis Johns were in that Danny Kaye movie before they were ever with me.

Plenty of gay icons are douchebags.

Lansbury always thought very highly of herself and was a bit of a narcissist too. Even though she was one of the homeliest gals on the MGM lot she wanted to play leading lady roles. For instance, she wanted to play Lana Turner's role in The Three Musketeers but had to settle for a smaller supporting role of Queen Anne (even though she thought she was too young to play a queen). At least she later embraced playing characters that were decades older than her actual age.

I have a soft spot for her because of Murder, She Wrote. I was never under any illusions about her about her as a person though- I never gave much thought to what she was like come to think of it.

Most actors - particularly those who were better-known - would have refused to play a gay role in the late 1960's. Particularly Hollywood actors - it was still considered a career-killer.

Now there were clearly exceptions: Burton and Harrison in the godawful STAIRCASE, but both of those men were well-known as strapping heteros, so it was more like a reason to shock. And Susannah York did do SISTER GEORGE as Alice with that sex scene with Coral Browne - she hated the experience, but went along. Beryl Reid wasn't known to film audiences, but did win a Tony for SISTER GEORGE on stage. The Brits have, I believe, a more objective view of taking parts vs. constantly thinking about their image.

None of the actors in BOYS IN THE BAND were well-known either.

It wasn't until William Hurt won an Oscar in 1987 for KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN did taking on a gay role become more "respectably" vs. a major career risk.

Ms Angela is and has always been a pro and a sweetheart. Her husband/manager was the one who played hardball.

[R19] Thanks for schooling those who invoke retroactive morality to virtue-signal for themselves. It's a serious problem among SJWs who operate outside of any historical context.

[quote]Bette didn't mind her gay boy fans, but did not like lesbians. Why did she want to play one?

So according to your logic, no one should play Hitler or Mussolini unless the actor liked them?

So, in what historical context should us gaylings view Miss Lansbury's bizarre take on the Weinstein saga, R21?

When Bette was offered that role she apparently said "I have no qualms about playing a lesbian. I have been married four times so I think my track record speaks for itself."

R24 - Still disgusting since she's like "I've enough proof that I'm a good, normal heterosexual so I can play a lesbian without people thinking I am one of those awful, abnormal creatures."

She's an old hag, but I will still always have nothing but distaste for people whose worst fear is to be pegged gay as if it was a goddamn disease.

[R23] As someone who's 92 years old, has experienced life in all of its contradictions and is therefore wiser than you. There was nothing "bizarre" about she said about shared responsibility. She has been in the world of actors/directors/producers for 70 years and knows how it all works. When this momentary hysteria passes people will see how foolish and cowardly they've been all along (this isn't directed at you).

Sexual harrassment isn't "momentary hysteria" you insufferable douchebag at R26.

Being old doesn't mean one is wise. In Angela Lansbury's case it seems to have brought her dementedness to the fore.

[R27] Gentleman and scholar.

Ok R9, l looked it up.

Bette Davis was OFFERED the role and refused it.

"Lukas Heller wrote the screenplay for the 1968 feature film version directed by Robert Aldrich. Beryl Reid was cast as George (although Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury were both offered the role). "

Link

Beryl Reid was too ugly to attract the straight boys. Most soft core straight pron films in the late sixties had lesbian scenes, and the straight boys loved them.

Eileen Atkins, who played Childie in the stage version of the Killing of Sister George:

I think Bette Davis made a big mistake not doing The Killing I'd Sister George. I think she'd have been wonderful in the part. But none of them (Hepburn, Landsbury, Davis) would play a lesbian. I think they all thought they'd ruin their reputations by playing a fully blown, male type lesbian. She was an out and out, "Eat my cigar! Drink my bathwater!" lesbian, and they got very nervous. In the end, they had to have Beryl, so they needed a star for my part.

Is that basically the lesbian equivalent of [italic]The Boys in the Band[/italic] or would that comparison be more apt for something else? The time frame fits and this actually came first.

Bette Davis seriously considered taking the part, I remember a Beryl Reid interview where she bitched about Davis coming back stage and telling her nobody but her ( Reid ) should play the role in any filmed version, then being pissed on hearing that Davis was slated for movie the role. I've also read the quote someone posted earlier about Davis saying her heterosexuality spoke for itself when she was looking to be on board for 'George', posters here are right in saying it was considered 'brave' to even think about playing a gay role in those days, the same good old days a lot of guys here look at with rose tinted glasses.

R34 - If you think I'm gonna look at that hag WITHOUT rose tinted glasses, you're nuts!

She like black cock too.

[quote] In the end, they had to have Beryl, so they needed a star for my part.

Then why did they cast Susannah York, who was never really a star (at least not one who meant $$)? I think Eileen told herself that to make her feel better. She was never the sexy, coltish, knockers up kind of gal York was in her youth.

if the character in the movie didn't have the scene where she straps on the dildo to fuck that other woman, Lansbury might have considered it.

[quote]So why is she such a beloved gay icon?

Ask Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim.

20 years ago, Carol Burnett could have done it. She's the mother of one; imagine her Miss Hannigan without the beauty products and desperately going after women instead of men.

What a stuck up old coot. She was often cast as the "bad" girl early in her career because she looked hard and much older than her age. I guess playing a whore is fine, but a lesbian is not? Fuck that bitch.

she had some nice tits when she was younger

There are actually people out there who are making Angela Lansbury fake nudes? And I thought I had too much time on my hands...

I'm wanking myself silly to those

I knew this would happen when she accepted a role in a sequel to a movie she turned down in the first place.

What's funny is that Angie appeared in 'Something for Everyone' less than two years later and in that film her son has an affair with Michael York. So I guess she had nothing against appearing in gay-themed movies, she just didn't want to play the lesbo role herself.

Wasn’t her first husband gay?

R47 Yes, that was the purty Richard Cromwell:

She didn't mind playing Miss Price in [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic] as a soft butch, albeit hetero (just barely) soft butch.

Sadie, Katie and Tex thought Angela was groovy.

Poor Angela. I remember how she was often named in those "People everyone on DL loves" threads we had around here but thanks to her stupid recent comments she's become quite a joke.

To quote Mo'Nique in Precious: "You should've kept your fucking mouth shut, oh uppity bitch!"

[quote] Sadie, Katie and Tex thought Angela was groovy.

She caught on to the kind of people they were in time to save her daughter from them.

PRODUCER: "We want you to play the title role in The Iron Lady."

BRENDAD ICKSON: "No, I think not. I have my fans and reputation to think of."

PRODUCER: "We want you in the title role for The Queen"

BRENDAD ICKSON: "No, I think not. I have my fans and reputation to think of."

PRODUCER: "We want you to star opposite your male counterpart, Ryan Gosling, in LA LA LAND."

BRENDAD ICKSON: "No, I think not. I have my fans and reputation to think of."

[quote] Then why did they cast Susannah York,

Susannah York was a star after her roles in Tom Jones, Kaleidoscope and A Man for All Seasons. Tom Jones was an enormous hit in the US, where homegrown movies still adhered to the Hayes Code. It was considered a very sexy movie (Doris Day and Rock Hudson personified Hollywood romance in those days)

Eileen Atkins had never had a leading role in a film that was a hit in the US. She was a theatrical nobody to American producers back then. Eileen Atkins didn't enjoy any kind of fame in the US until Upstairs Downstairs was shown on US TV in the early 70s, and even then she was only noted as a co-creator of the series and did not appear in it. Susannah York, on the other hand, was nominated for best supporting actress Oscar in 1969 for the major Hollywood film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

The Telegraph obituary for Susannah York said she was "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomised the sensuality of the swinging Sixties".

Alas, York destroyed her US career in 1969 or 1970 when she said her academy award nomination offended her and that she didn't like the movie (They Shoot Horses...). Sister George was made 2 or 3 years prior to her career suicide, so she was a star when she made it.

Most of you apparently don't remember thus, but most established actors didn't want to play gay in the 80s, much less in the 60s.

The news is really sweeping the towne - Beryl Reid loves Coral Browne!